


A Vision So Blue

by PrinceOfOneSingleDomain



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Comfort/Angst, Crew as Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Love, Gen, Insecurity, Jealousy, Platonic Relationships, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 22:04:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15567306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceOfOneSingleDomain/pseuds/PrinceOfOneSingleDomain
Summary: Padparadscha meets Sapphire and starts wondering why the Off-Colours might even need a useless gem who can only look into the past. She has to tell the Captain to leave her on Earth. However, he might have a different opinion on the matter.A one-shot exploring some of the feelings Padparadscha might experience upon meeting Sapphire, and the choice words her Captain Lars will have for her then.





	A Vision So Blue

**Author's Note:**

> I just love Padparadscha for being a fuzzy, orange ball of cuteness.
> 
> Any sort of criticism is very, very welcome.

Blue.

That was the colour of the beach the Captain loved so, the colour of earth’s sky, and it would be the colour of the gem he wanted her to meet.

“Her name’s Sapphire”, he’d said when they were landing, “and she’s like you, just, you know, different.”

Padparadscha had taken some time to respond, her words measured and slow.

“I’m her Off-Colour.”

Lars had nodded and tried to make out how that made Pad feel, but she had disappeared beneath a deep layer of her thoughts, no longer responding to anything he said, unknowable and distant. Hopefully this wasn’t a bad idea, he thought, but Garnet had been insistent.

He had been off with his human woman and Steven, spending some much-needed time alone with his kin, the Off-Colours understood – and Padparadscha did, too, though she found it hard to be without the Captain after he had entered her life. There was something so unpredictable about him, something that made the present weird and unknowable, something that had finally made her useful.

“A brilliant vision has entered my mind!”

The Off-Colours, sitting on a couple of benches by the beach or, in the case of Fluorite, simply lying on her back, turned to look at her.

“What’s it gonna be now, Pad?”, Rhodonite asked. “A seagull flew by?”

“How can you know that?”, Padparadscha asked.

“I can look up at the sky, you know.”

“Another vision!”

“Oh, golly.”

“A gem will visit us, and she will not be alone!”

A voice called to them from behind. They turned around to find the leader of the Crystal Gems, Garnet, leaning against one of the poles humans used for electricity, looking nonchalant and aloof.

“Thought I’d drop by, say hello, kidnap Padparadscha.”

“Ah”, Rhodonite said, “so it’s the usual.”

“You betcha.

Padparadscha waited a moment before she felt she had fully understood every word said, then stood up and walked until she was right in front of Garnet.

“You. Will. Bring. Her. Back. Right?”

“How could I leave you without her?”, Garnet answered, looking up Fluorite’s tall figure. She still loved the multifusion, even though Fluorite hadn’t yet told her all of her parts. Sometimes, she felt just like an old human lady, keeping her secrets close to her (very large and purple-ish blue) chest.

While they walked, Padparadscha felt Garnet’s eyes on her, even behind the visor, but whenever she looked up at her to meet her gaze, smile, ask a question about what the nature of their meeting was, Garnet had already been looking at the temple ahead of them for more than a moment.

Ah, of course.

“We’re almost there, Padparadscha, but I think we might as well start here.”

Garnet stopped. It took Padparadscha a moment to notice, and when she stopped, she had to walk a couple of paces back to meet Garnet again.

“Are you ready?”

“For what?”, Padparadscha asked.

“To meet Sapphire, of course.”

Garnet took off her visor. Three eyes, as Padparadscha had been told – and as she had seen when probing far into the Crystal Gem’s past, as far as her eye could go.

“She’s my Future Vision”, Garnet said, “and I hear you might have quite a few things in common.”

Padparadscha couldn’t help it. Whenever Garnet used this sweet, sugary tone of voice, she wanted to melt into the floor, just like she did when the Captain did it, although those times were sadly rare and far between.

“I see a fabulous vision!” Padparadscha said. But, why? She tried to hide her embarrassment – why would she say she would be asked a question if, no doubt, the question had already been asked? But Garnet merely smiled at her and encouraged her to continue.

“You will… ask me if I am ready! And I will be ready!”

“Brilliant, that’s a good vision if I’ve ever seen one! Now, watch this.”

Garnet’s entire form glowed white, and she separated in a way that was not separation, that was still whole and filled with the loving warmth she exuded when together – Ruby and Sapphire emerged, holding hands.

“I’ll leave you to it!”, Ruby said, running off to talk to the Off-Colours. They had found it easier to spend small moments apart after their wedding – they didn’t always have to be together to feel together afterwards, as if there was something connecting them beyond bodies and shapes.

Padparadscha clapped her hands together.

“Garnet will unfuse!”

Sapphire chuckled. “Yes, she has.”

Ah yes, Padparadscha thought, of course she already has.

“Padparadscha”, Sapphire said, displaying the same form of generosity in her voice as Garnet had, “I hear you can also see through time. Is that true?”

Padparadscha noticed how alike they were – she knew what Sapphires were supposed to look like, but had never seen one herself. She was perfect. While Padparadschas hair frayed out at the edges, Sapphire’s was fluffy and full. Even her dress looked a bit better than hers, fewer parts, more refined.

“Yes”, Padparadscha said, “I have visions, too.”

Was that spite in her voice? No, she was – she had never been angry at anyone, let alone at a gem like Sapphire, so full, so beautiful, so old and helpful for the Crystal Gems… while she was so useless.

No, she wasn’t – Lars believed in her! Or did he? When was the last time he had asked her to predict something?

“What do you see, Padparadscha?”

“You do not know?”

“I just want to talk to you about it, that’s all. Maybe it’ll be easier if I start.”

Sapphire moved her hair, revealing the large eye underneath.

“I can see the future, or at least a possible future – there are so many branching paths, I get confused sometimes. So, you see, it’s not perfect.”

How could she say that? There were branching paths, multiple possible futures she could see – instead of the old single boring past Padparadscha managed to tap into.

The orange gem felt something tighten in her chest.

“Sometimes, I get so overwhelmed by them”, Sapphire continued, “I can’t do anything.”

“What do you use it for?”, Padparadscha asked.

“I help the others make decisions”, Sapphire answered, choosing her words carefully, “and a long, long time ago, I was in Blue Diamond’s court.”

Part of a court. Of course. She isn’t Off-Colour. And she helps, she helps actively, she actually tangibly does have a purpose on her ship, no, her group, the legendary Crystal Gems… they would never have come far with a Padparadscha.

“Padparadscha, what do you do?”, Sapphire asked, still smiling as if she didn’t already know that Padparadscha was utterly useless and had to be babied by everyone on the ship. Rhodonite barely took her seriously at times.

“I…”, Padparadscha started. She didn’t get to finish.

“Wait, come here, walk forward a bit”, Sapphire said.

Padparadscha did as she was told, and a mere ten seconds later a large wave crashed into the place where she had been standing, louder than any of the calm, quiet Beach City waves she had ever heard. It would have completely submerged her and wet her clothes. And she never would have known, had it not been for Sapphire.

“Now, what were you about to say?”, Sapphire asked.

“Don’t you already know that?”, Padparadscha responded a minute later. She put a hand in front of her lips – how could she, how did she dare? Garnet and her parts were friends of the Captain’s, and she was – she was just being mean while she was being so kind, an ideal Sapphire compared to her wavering, useless form that wouldn’t even have dodged a large wave in time…

It took her a long moment to regain enough composure to run off.

“I have to… I have to go see the Captain!”

She had to tell him to leave her. Dead weight, that’s what she was, nothing more. 

While running toward the Big Donut, where she saw Lars would be (or had been and might not even be anymore, of course, of _course_ ), she noticed the other Off-Colours and Ruby still on the bench, talking and laughing without her while Ruby told some story from way back, about the time when Steven had been just a baby.

Don’t stop. You’d only get a joke an hour later, anyway.

He was sitting in front of the expanded Donut place, watching the woman – Sadie – sign her own picture for a passing girl. Steven stepped outside of the building, carrying a large pack of Donuts to their table. He looked a little older than the last time she’d seen him, but not by much.

Lars noticed her immediately.

“Hey, Pad, what’s up? You okay?”

“That’s Padparadscha, right?”, Sadie asked. Lars nodded.

Padparadscha approached them with her hands holding on to her dress, not sure what she was even doing. The words left her throat without even as much as a thought passing through her mind beforehand, and she couldn’t take them back.

“Please, leave me here, Sir.”

“Wh-what? What the… Where is this even coming from?”

Lars stood up and walked toward her, but she flinched back, making him stop.

“I… I talked to the Sapphire, and…”

“Wait, Garnet unfused?”, Steven said, his eyes large with stars.

“Yes”, Padparadscha said a moment later, “and… Captain, please, if you don’t wish to embarrass the crew further…”

“Embarrass? Pad, I… Come on. Guys”, he said looking at the humans, “we’ll be right back.”

Sadie gave a thumbs up while Steven just nodded.

Soon, Padparadscha and Lars were stood behind the Big Donut in a big lot that smelled vaguely of chocolate. It would have been pleasant had Pad’s nerves not been absolutely on edge.

Now he would say it, leave her, tell her to stay on Earth and do nothing for the rest of her life while all she wanted was to go off and be in space with the others.

“Padparadscha”, Lars said, using his serious Captain voice, “explain yourself.”

The tone of his voice mixed with the memory of Sapphire, and while Padparadscha hurried her words more than she ever had before, Lars noticed a single distinct stream of water leaking down her face.

“Pad”, he said, all his Captain-like demeanour gone, “are you crying?”

“I’m sorry”, she said, feeling a sob bubbling up, “I just – I can’t do anything right, and you’re so nice to me, but all you ever do is save me, and I don’t want to be a burden! Sapphire – she’s so beautiful, and so _useful,_ I…”

“Oh, you poor thing.”

The Captain knelt down. He moved her hair to the side, exposing her swelling, crying eye.

“You’re really beautiful too, you know?”

“N-no I’m not.”

Lars shook his head no – of course she was.

“And you are very useful.”

“How? How can I possibly be of any use?”

“Remember when I asked you how Emerald was feeling when she’d threatened us, like, an hour before?”

“Y-you mean when she was hesitant?”

Lars nodded.

“Yeah. I never ever would’ve known without you.”

That was true. Still… Padparadscha waited until she knew exactly what she wanted to say, but it was no use – her thoughts kept wavering back and forth.

“Padparadscha, what did I feel when you told me you wanted to leave the crew?”

She focused, climbing a ladder back down into the past with the power of her gem. There he was, and he seemed concerned, worried, anxious.

“You didn’t want me to go”, she said, slowly, not really believing it as she said it.

“Yeah”, Lars said, gently giving her a pat on the head that made her feel all sorts of warm and fuzzy, “because I wouldn’t want to spend a single day out there without you. You can know what somebody meant when they said something, you can tell me, with absolute certainty, where someone has been, you can tell me when I’m pressing the wrong button – so who cares if you can’t predict the future? Garnet can’t even do that sometimes, and she’s, well, she’s freaking _Garnet_.”

He brought his face close to hers.

“I love all of you”, he said, “and I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all of you – and you especially, Padparadscha.”

“Why me? Captain, I’m… I can't even do anything that great, and…”

“Because you can do something nobody else in the entire Galaxy can.”

She took a moment to respond, not trusting her voice to carry the words.

“What is it? What do you mean?”

“You can always make me smile just by being there. I'd take you along even if you couldn't look into the past, or the future, or anything, because it's you I like, Pad. Don't you get that, like, seriously? I made myself pretty clear, right? Come on, let’s go back to the Off-Colours.”

“B-but…”

“No buts. Come on.”

He brought her to the Off-Colours, holding her small, tender hand all the way. Ruby had already left to be with Sapphire again. The Off-Colours were sitting together quietly, enjoying the peaceful Earth that still seemed so foreign to them, even though it was the closest thing they had to a home – besides the Sun Incinerator, that is. They all greeted him with a loud “Hey-ya!”, and he seemed glad his human-greetings-lessons were paying off.

“Guys”, he said, “Padparadscha wants to stay on Earth. What do y’all feel about that?”

Their jaws dropped.

“Padparadscha. No. Why. Would. You?”

“You can’t just stay here”, Rut said. “We’re the Off-Colours, we go together”, Tile continued.

“What made you want to leave in the first place? Aren’t we cool enough for you, huh?”

“I… I…”

“Pad”, Rhodonite said, “if you want to stay, of course, you can. But we’ll never stop bugging you, calling you or visiting you.”

“Why?”, Padparadscha asked a couple of seconds later, needing every bit of time she could get to understand the moment unfolding before her.

“Why? Because we love you, of course. All of us.”

“Yeah”, the Rutile twins nodded.

“Of. Course”, Fluorite said as well, smiling down at her.

“Then… Then I want to stay with you guys!”, Padparadscha said.

“Hurray!”, the Rutile twins yelled, and it didn’t take long for Lars, Rhodonite and Fluorite to join in.

Lars threw Padparadscha up into the air, wind fluttering around her hair and clothes, and caught her on her way down, much to her own giggling delight.

“I love you, Captain”, she said, feeling her face flush with a weird sort of heat as soon as the words had been spoken.

“I love you too, Pad”, he answered. Then he turned to talk to the Off-Colours. “Guys, when I yell hip hip, you yell hurray. Don’t question it. Hip hip!”

“Hurray!”

Garnet watched, smiling. Lars didn't seem to want to stop launching Padparadscha upwards, even after all the hurra had died down.

He kept throwing her far, far up into the crimson evening sky and, even without Future Vision, she knew he would catch her every single time.


End file.
